Evolving Port

Port Melbourne and Fishermans Bend change. Houses are changed or demolished and new forms of housing take their place. Port Houses records some of these changes.

28 May 2023

253- 257 Normanby Rd, Fishermans Bend

R. Iconic, formerly known as the Oxford University Press site

May 2023

The ground floor is for sale with a 10 year lease to Coles. Coles is expected to begin trading in November. 

263 Normanby Rd, getting ready for Coles  May 2023

December 2022

R Iconic viewed from cnr Pickles & Ingles St

April 2022

R Iconic from Ingles x Station Sts, April 2022

R.Iconic is a 32 level development comprising ground-floor retail, supermarket and a 5 level podium.

Construction is well underway, utilising HBS (Hickory Building System), a prefabricated and integrated construction solution with no live edge activities making it the safest system for multi-storey construction.

January 2021

Noting the status of this development at the start of 2021. The Oakwood development at 202 - 204 Normanby Rd (left) and the Normanby at 199 - 201 Normanby Rd (right) are clearly visible. The former Dunlop factory is in the foreground.

The development will contain 456 apartments over 37 and 40 storeys.

Builders: Hickory
Landscape: Paul Bungay

R Iconic viewed from Boundary St

September 2020

Work is underway on site.

R Iconic viewed from Boundary St

May 2020

R Iconic is 'coming soon'. Refer to R Corporation's website to see what the development will look like. 





May 2020 


March 2020

Work has resumed on site.




Exemplary tree protection on both Normanby Rd and Boundary St.



August 2019

The site is being cleared by Delta.

August 2019

December 2017

Development permit No. PA170223 was approved by the Minister for Planning - dated 5 December 2017.

VCAT Ref P1604/2017.

September 2017

The Oxford University Press site 



R Corporation's proposal for this site includes constructing two towers of 33 and 42 storeys including a five level podium containing ground floor level retail and townhouse dwellings, and apartments and a 147 room residential hotel above.

The Minister for Planning is the decision maker for this site, but the Council's advice is sought.

The Council resolved to advise the Minister that they did not support the application because, amongst other things

  • Tower 1 would overshadow Tower 2
  • The communal open space would be overshadowed
  • The buildings would overshadow nearby Fennell Reserve between 11.00am and 2pm on September 22 
  • Visual bulk
  • Poor thermal performance 
The proposal is headed to VCAT since a decision was not made within the required time frame. There will be a Directions Hearing on 05 or 22 October (tbc) and a hearing commencing 28 November 2017 for four days. 

To get a sense of the Council's concerns, view the renderings

The full Council report 19 September 2017

8 June 2016

R Corporation bought the Oxford University Press site for $36.35 m.

The site







135 Bridge St, Port Melbourne

27 May 2023

The property was auctioned today by Frank Gordon. The sold price was $1,200,000.

135 Bridge St on auction day, 28 May 2023
April 2023

Announcing the forthcoming auction of the property by Frank Gordon. 



14 May 2023

77 Spring St East, Port Melbourne

 May 2023

The windows are shuttered. The property is for sale by Belle. The range is between $2,300,000 - $2,500,000 suggesting the site's development potential. 

77 Spring St East, May 2023


06 May 2023

101 Spring St, Port Melbourne

Clareville 




Clareville is thought to have been constructed in the 1860s or 1870s. Purchased by James B Bartlett at the turn of the 20th Century, Clareville was the location for Bartlett's SP bookmaking operation for around thirty years. The Bartlett family were long time Port residents. James B Bartlett was the son of James John Barlett, former Mayor of Port Melbourne [1884-85], proprietor of the Railway Club Hotel in Raglan St, sporting identity and bookmaker.

Clareville is unusual as an apparently early house which was comprehensively altered at the turn of the century. The result of the alterations exemplifies the stylistic transition that can be seen in many houses constructed at the end of the nineteenth century in which the typical form of a Victorian double fronted house was overlaid with elements such as the half timbered gables, terracotta roof ridging and lead lighted casement windows deriving from the Queen Anne and other Arts and Crafts domestic architectural styles.

source: City of Port Phillip Heritage Review Database No: 685

Clareville courtesy of Frank Gordon August 1998